The application of the Pareto distribution to approximate income distributions of wealthy households in Poland

Abstract

The aim of the paper is to approximate the equivalent income distributions of wealthy households in particular socio-economic groups using the Pareto distribution, with parameters estimated by means of the maximum likelihood estimation method. Households whose income exceeded the established wealth threshold were classified as wealthy households. Income distributions of wealthy households are usually non-modal and heavy-tailed, thus, the Pareto distribution was applied as their theoretical model. The equivalent income of wealthy households in Poland was analysed in total and in particular socio-economic groups. The research was based on data from the 2014–2017 Household Budget Survey. Selected similarity measures were used to examine the degree to which the theoretical distributions proved consistent with the empirical ones. The obtained results confirmed the high level of consistency of empirical income distributions with the Pareto model. Moreover, very good approximations were obtained especially for wealthy households of employees and self-employed, as well as pensioners. Slightly worse results were obtained for the farmers group. Theoretical distributions well fitted to empirical data were used to estimate selected distribution characteristics, including measures of location, dispersion and inequality, and to compare the different groups in terms of their wealth.